Are all Contractors complete losers??

[Nancy]

I really get ticked off at the ones that don't show up for their appointments. It's almost like they drive by the house and decide that the job won't be big enough to make it worth their time. When we had new drain tiles put in I had 6 contractors lined up. Only 2 showed up.

 

[thelionqueen]

The lionqueen, great post!

Is your husband in S. FL?

Thanks, unfortunately we are Denver, CO but will be in Florida in 10 days (Walt Disney World)

Another funny addition, one of my husbands old clients moved to Oregon from Denver (Exec. with Subaru Corp.) and offered my husband whatever price he wanted to charge to come to Oregon and do some upgrades for 1-2 months. Even offered to fly him home every weekend, fly us up to Oregon and pay for all expenses every 2 weeks! He is a GREAT guy and we love him & his family, but just couldn't do it...he's way too busy and would be too much strain on our family. I can't stand to be without him even a day

That's a true sign of a good contractor

 

[Tina]

I'm about to lose my mind with this guy. I called him again this morning and got his voicemail again! He called me back about 20 minutes later and gave me some sob story about a sick relative (which DH predicted would happen). I was not nasty about it, but I wasn't sympathetic either. I was very business like. He said he would be over in a few hours. He also said he would finish up on Monday. I told him "Oh No you won't! I have to go back to work next week. I took this whole week off for YOU!" He said we'll work something out to finish up in the evenings.

So, here I sit. Its after 4pm and I've not seen or heard from him. He's not returning calls again. DH left a message. I've left 2. On my last message, I told him he needs to call me and be honest about what's going on. I told him that if I don't hear from him tonight, I will be going to work tomorrow and no one will be here to let him in to work or get his tools. I guarantee, I will not hear from him.

 

[mtblujeans]

I can certainly relate to your frustration....

We are having a small mud room added to the back of the house. This project should have taken 5 days to build, except for the cement. We are now into our 6th week.....and there are 2 guys working on this! They have now taken some of the siding off the house to 'stagger' it so it does not look "funny". They took off Monday while I was on the phone and have not been back. It is supposed to rain all weekend again. The mud room doesn't have siding and now some siding has been removed from the house. DH told them he wanted this finished so he could paint before snow flies. That motivated them to hurry and finish the inside last week....who knows when the outside will get siding. That is all it needs now...just the siding! WTH?? But, I am sure they will be holding their hands out for a check when/if this room ever gets finished!

Well, on the side....DH says they want to build his barn and he has learned he can't let them....

 

[powellrj]

we are still waiting on our screened porch that was suppose to start on August 6 and be finished by August 9. They called today and PROMISED it would start tomorrow. I am not holding my breath.

 

[kadaten]

Tina...had a similar experience with a deck guy there in N. Va. 'cept he took our down payment and never showed at all! We DID have to take him to court to get our money back. VA has a good system for suing contractors (VA Contractor's Recovery Fund), assuming your guy was licensed. If you need any info on going this route, feel free to PM me! You do have to do small claims court first, but that's with no lawyers and the fees are reimbursed. The recovery fund is like insurance against deadbeat contractors....if you win in small claims court, they pay you and then take on the nasty job of tracking the guy down and getting the money back. It all comes out of their licensing fees....hence you can only use the system if he had a valid license.

Oh, and if you need a deck guy, I can highly recommend the guy who came and did the work finally! We were in Lake Ridge (Woodbridge) and he works all around that area

One thing the GOOD deck guy told me was NEVER give them any money until the job was started, to ensure they show up on time! We gave him 50% at the end of a FULL day's work (8am-5pm) and the rest upon completion, which was only 2 days later. He showed up on time, with helpers, and finished on time. Heck...he even started a day early 'cause he finished his earlier jobs faster than he thought he would! And like a true professional, he left our yard cleaner than he found it! (Oh, and he gave us more deck for the same money we were going to pay the other guy....got 2 levels instead of one!)

 

[Laurajean1014]

We are having some tile work done around the house. The master bath shower stall (we had gutted it ourselves after a leak), the newly constructed full bath in the basement, and the floor in the newly constructed basement wet bar. We talked to several different guys and chose this one. He seemed to have it all together. Very cool guy, saw pictures of his beautiful work, professional, thorough in his estimate, wrote a complete detailed contract - including time estimate. He was great. Until workday #1! I think he must have sent his evil twin to do the actual labor.

Day #1: I get up early, get ready, get everything cleared out of the bathroom for him by 8am and wait for him to show up.... ..... finally, I call him around noon and get his voicemail. I leave a message asking what time he will be starting. He calls back around 1pm and says he's finishing a job that ran behind last week, but should be over soon. Ok, fine. Things like that happen. I would have liked a phone call, but fine.... He shows up at 2:30. He does some banging around in the master bath and goes home at 4pm. Before he leaves, I ask what time I can expect him tomorrow.... no later than 10am, ma'am.

Day #2: 10am comes and goes.... his van pulls up at 12:30 and he has a helper with him. Great!! Now he can make up for lost time with a helper. They bang around in the master for an hour then head back out to the van for a 45 minute smoke break. They finally come back in and start laying tile. The get all the tile laid out in the shower stall and start moving their tools into the basement for the next area (keep in mind tiles are only installed, not grouted). Now it is 4pm - time to go home. I ask what time they'll be starting tomorrow....10am ma'am.

Day #3 (TODAY): Its 2:19 pm... no sign of the tile guy or his helper. I've called an left messages on his voicemail. No reply.

I took time off of work for this????????????? His contract states work will begin Monday and take 4 days to complete... that means done tomorrow... I don't see it happening! This is so frustrating. I feel trapped in my own home because the second I leave, I just know he'll pull up, ready to work.

My advise to you...................... don't ever try to build a house. If this makes you crazy - you haven't seen anything yet.